Below are Quotes about "Theocratic Warfare" from the Silent Witnesses Australian News Channel 9 Sunday Television Program:
JIM DONALD, FORMER ELDER: Well, this is my copy of an elders' book and these are my handwritten notes taken down at the dictation from the circuit overseer.
REPORTER: Jim Donald is a former church elder now blowing the whistle on his fellow brothers with details of an edict so sensitive, it was never committed to paper.
JIM DONALD: This was a letter to all bodies of elders.
REPORTER: And it says here "child abuse confidential". What is it telling us there?
JIM DONALD: It's saying to us here "If interviewed by social workers or police or other authorities, "do not reveal if a confession has been made. "Contact society immediately."
REPORTER: So if a child abuser has said, "Yes, I did it", you're not to tell the police that?
JIM DONALD: No, not at all.
REPORTER: Do you think that's obstruction?
JIM DONALD: Obviously. Obviously.
REPORTER: Jim Donald is a Justice of the Peace who once spread Jehovah's word as a church elder in the northern NSW town of Glen Innes. Now he confines himself to spreading news of worldly matters on his paper round, having abandoned the church four years ago.
JIM DONALD: We were to resist every approach by the authorities to willingly give over any information.
REPORTER: And you knew, did you, that that was the agenda, that you were not to cooperate?
JIM DONALD: Absolutely. You see, every instance like that is to be seen as an attack against pure worship and against Jehovah's name, and so what they call theocratic warfare is to take place.
REPORTER: Theocratic warfare?
JIM DONALD: Yes.
REPORTER: What does that mean?
JIM DONALD: That means we are in a battle situation.
REPORTER: With the police? With the State?
JIM DONALD: With the State.
ANDY FARRELL, FORMER MEMBER: They have a phrase they refer to which is theocratic warfare, and that is basically that it's acceptable to lie or to cover over things if it's for the good of God's purpose.
REPORTER: Andy Farrell left the Jehovah's Witnesses five years ago after a lifetime's association.
ANDY FARRELL: They won't condone breaking the law where it's a more black and white issue, say it was a murder case or something like that, but there are certainly a lot of problems of a lesser scale that the church tries to deal with internally that probably belong in a court of law.
REPORTER: Child abuse?
ANDY FARRELL: Yeah, exactly.
REPORTER: You've written here "search warrants and subpoenas". Now, what did they tell you?
JIM DONALD: They may make a forced entry into the hall. So we were encouraged to stand in front of the door and not to willingly open the door for them.
REPORTER: Officially, the church denies all knowledge of the concept of theocratic warfare, but Jim Donald's account of the verbal instruction not to cooperate with police was confirmed to Sunday by another former elder, though he wouldn't be filmed. There's nothing on paper, right?
JIM DONALD: No.
REPORTER: Nothing on paper at all?
JIM DONALD: No.
REPORTER: Do you think this is because their legal department would have known they might have a problem with this in the future?
JIM DONALD: Oh, I think so, yeah.
REPORTER: Because they've got a big problem with this, haven't they?
JIM DONALD: Absolutely, yes.
REPORTER: And the man who was once the society's own lawyer agrees.
REV WARRYN STUCKEY, FORMER WATCHTOWER SOCIETY LAWYER: I think it can have the practical effect of perverting the course of justice.
REPORTER: It could?
REV WARRYN STUCKEY: It could have that practical effect.
REPORTER: The Reverend Warryn Stuckey has left behind the law and the Jehovah's Witnesses to become an Anglican priest. It was a short journey physically, for his church is a stone's throw from the Watchtower's Sydney headquarters. But in personal and theological terms, his was a momentous defection and as a former elder and director of Watchtower companies, he's a potent witness against his former associates.
REV WARRYN STUCKEY: I could imagine that if it was a case of any other crime, like murder or something, that there would be full cooperation and why in this case there is not suggests that there is something that they're protecting.
REPORTER: Protecting the church's reputation or even protecting child abusers perhaps?
REV WARRYN STUCKEY: Or particular child abusers.
...
REPORTER: We asked the Watchtower Society a series of questions about its handling of the cases of Robert Souter and Victor Webb and asked them to tell us how many child abusers they've uncovered in their ranks. We were told it wasn't the business of the media to know, though the church did say very few were elders or those holding positions of responsibility. In this letter, Viv Mouritz, the society's Australian president, declined our request for an interview and said about the claims of Simon Thomas and Natalie Webb -
"My inquiries indicate that the elders involved did not give instructions not to report the abuse to the police".
REPORTER: It's at odds with everything we've heard from a number of sources, including a judge. But on previous form, the congregation will be told our story is the work of Satan.
JEHOVAH'S WITNESS PREACHER SPEAKING AT A CONVENTION: The media out there, with all its power and its might, it presents human nature in three Ds, three Ds - debauchery of every kind, deception of every kind and demonism of every kind - and we need to be aware of that.
REPORTER: But the authorities and the courts need to be aware of something else, something far more sinister - the church's notion of the truth. In this book 'Insight on the Scriptures', it says here, doesn't it "Lying generally involves saying something false to a person who is entitled to know the truth".
JIM DONALD: Yes.
REPORTER: Would your average judge or magistrate be somebody who was entitled to know the truth?
JIM DONALD: It would be very difficult for a person not to uphold what the society would want. They would back the society, and they would see that as backing Jehovah, in which case, these people, the court, is not entitled to know the truth.
REPORTER: Is not?
JIM DONALD: No. And in that case they would say that's not a lie.
REPORTER: So it's quite possible, given this definition of lying, that a Jehovah's Witness could go before a civil court in this country and lie to their back teeth?
JIM DONALD: Yes.
REPORTER: And this from the man who was once the society's own lawyer.
REV WARRYN STUCKEY: That has always been, as long as I remember, has been Watchtower doctrine, that only those who are entitled to know the truth deserve the truth.
REPORTER: Right, but if they determined that a particular judge or a particular court is not entitled to know the truth, they won't tell the truth?
REV WARRYN STUCKEY: Correct.
REPORTER: Do you recall telling her that she shouldn't go to the police?
MAURICE HADLEY: Not at all.
REPORTER: She says you did?
MAURICE HADLEY: Oh, well that's her word against mine, isn't it?
REPORTER: So who is entitled to know the truth?
MAURICE HADLEY: I mean, who do you think you are anyway? Since when have you become the bees knees on all of this?